GILROY – Construction of a gym designed for students with
special limitations is officially under way at Gavilan College.
GILROY – Construction of a gym designed for students with special limitations is officially under way at Gavilan College.
On Tuesday, Gavilan trustees, staff and students celebrated the improvements the new building will make to the Adaptive Physical Education program housed there. The program offers students with a variety of adaptive needs – including back injuries and arthritis – an opportunity to participate in physical activity courses.
The gym will feature an adaptive basketball court and special flooring as well as a “Human Performance Lab,” an exercise room with special equipment.
“People who use wheelchairs will be able to get a good workout,” said Fran Lopez, dean of Disabled Student Programs.
The more than 150 students who use the old facilities each semester are looking forward to the new building, Gavilan spokesperson Jan Bernstein Chargin said. Students in the Adaptive Physical Education program have been using a small room off of the main gymnasium since 1986.
“Some students have been using the cramped, kind of makeshift room off of the locker room, and have been told every semester that ‘yes, we have a new one coming,” Bernstein Chargin said.
The wait has been 13 years, due to the difficulty of obtaining state funding to pay for the $4.5 million project. The state contributed $4 million to the facility through a voter approved bond – Proposition 1A. Gavilan College was left to pick up the remaining $500,000 of the tab.
Ruthford Construction, based in Santa Clara, is the construction firm hired to do the work and is expected to complete the project sometime in April 2004.
“This is a wonderful opportunity because they (people with special needs) can become productive members of society once they get their objective career in life, which is wonderful. We love it,” said Trustee James De La Cruz said.
The Adaptive Physical Education building will be used by individuals with a multitude of adaptive needs, including those who experience permanent and temporary injuries. Participants also include seniors and people recovering from stroke or who have connective tissue limitations, for example.
To participate in the Adaptive Physical Education classes, individuals must have a medically verified disability.
This is the third and final new building on Gavilan’s main campus built through state funding. The other facilities include the Child Development Center and the Health Occupations Building.
For more information about the program, call 848-4865.
Jodi Engle is city editor at the Gilroy Dispatch.
